Restoring sync settings on new drive after crash

My hard drive crashed. Installed new one with fresh Vista. Reinstalled ACT 11. Found copy of ADF file on old drive and copied it over to new drive and now ACT boots and reads my database. Only problem is it does not seem to know about the old sync set. My computer was publisher and there was one remote database copy that sync'd over the network.

I just read Knowledgebase article 19817 that tells me I should have brought the .ALF file over too, but I didn't. I also would not have been able to detach the database from SQL Server, since the old drive, while readable, is not bootable.

My question is, can I bring the .ALF file over now and copy over the file on the new drive? It doesn't make sense to follow the exact procedure in 19817 given my situation.

Re: Restoring sync settings on new drive after crash

Thanks, Greig. As it turns out, my mistake was not recreating the same name on the laptop when the new drive was installed. I used your suggestion to rename the Main Database Location on the remote database, but there is apparently no method for changing the name of the database location on the Publisher database, so they still would not synch.

After some experimentation, I was able to detach the database (using the instructions in Knowledgebase ID 19817) then used Control Panel, System, Change Settings (under Computer Name section) to rename the computer to the old name. (if you are not sure of the old name, go the synchronization panel on the publisher machine and select Manage Database and then View Settings). Changing the name requires a reboot. Then restart ACT and open the desired database ADF file and it will update. You should then be able to synch the remote database.

Re: Restoring sync settings on new drive after crash

Since your machine's identity has probably changed after the crash and resinstallation of the O/S, this can break synchronization. In the main database, if you go to Tools/Synchronization Panel and click Manage Database, do you see a list of remote databases? If not, then you need to recreate the remote database. If so, then one thing you can try:

- On the remote database, go to Tools/Synchronization Panel and click Manage Main Database Location.

- Make sure the machine name of the machine hosting the main DB is correct

If this does not work, then you will have to create a new remote database.

And yes, you would want to copy over both the .ADF and .ALF files, as well as the "database files" folder for your database.

Greig Hollister

Note: Effective 6/1/13, Sage no longers provides support for the Act! software. This is now provided by Swiftpage.

Re: Restoring sync settings on new drive after crash

Thanks, Greig. As it turns out, my mistake was not recreating the same name on the laptop when the new drive was installed. I used your suggestion to rename the Main Database Location on the remote database, but there is apparently no method for changing the name of the database location on the Publisher database, so they still would not synch.

After some experimentation, I was able to detach the database (using the instructions in Knowledgebase ID 19817) then used Control Panel, System, Change Settings (under Computer Name section) to rename the computer to the old name. (if you are not sure of the old name, go the synchronization panel on the publisher machine and select Manage Database and then View Settings). Changing the name requires a reboot. Then restart ACT and open the desired database ADF file and it will update. You should then be able to synch the remote database.